The game of "Monopoly" is played on a board having an endless track of stations along which pieces representative of each player are moved by distances determined by the throw of dice. Almost all of the stations represent pieces of real estate which the player whose piece lands on the station may purchase, if it has not already been purchased by another player, and which subject to the rules of the game he may develop and in respect of which he may charge rent from any player whose piece thereafter happens to land on the station concerned. At the start of play each player is issued with a sum of money and usually receives further money each time his piece completes a circuit of the stations. In the game of "Monopoly" a few of the stations do not represent pieces of property but more or less arbitrarily indicate a benefit or a forfeit applicable to the player whose piece lands on one or other of those few stations.
To some degree then the game of "Monopoly" simulates financial or economic competition between the players.
By comparison the present invention aims at providing a higher degree of simulation and, at least in its preferred embodiments, brings into the simulation more of the factors affecting the economic and social life of a community than those of "Monopoly". For example, in its preferred embodiments the present game enables players to seek loans, take out insurance policies, it provides for competition between the players through legislative action, and most important of all takes into account inflation and deflation, that is to say, those fluctuations in the purchasing power of currency which occur from time to time as a result of economic forces largely beyond the control of any individual.